The Empire of Good Intentions

If there had been enough time (but there never is), I would have shown you some or all of this documentary on the British Empire in India and Ireland. Sometime, when you have a free moment (hah!), check it out.

Double Quiz Monday

I've been enjoying some really fine posts and some very nice papers this week. I hope you all had an excellent holiday and will be ready for a lively class on Monday.

Just a reminder that it will be a double quiz on Monday, so chapters 14-22 will be covered. Chapters 23-24 will be left over for our last class on 7/19. No rest for the wicked!

The campus portal is down this weekend, but I will try to have it updated for you on Monday.

This and That

I really enjoyed our class last night! Here's a link to the Napoleonic blunder chart that we couldn't see very well on the screen and an English translation of it. Here's a link to the show about the two Brooklyn guys who retrace Marco Polo's travels--it looks like there's a lot of fun stuff there. Finally, here's a link to the National Geographic program, "How the Earth Changed History," that Mary mentioned. Hope you all have an excellent 4th of July and have a good time with your final projects. Send me a message if you run into any snags.

Syllabus Update

Just a reminder that we agreed on Monday that we would prepare Chapters 17, 18, and 20 for next week's class. You can skip 19!

Reading Analysis #2

In the next section of the textbook (Part 5: The European Moment in World History, 1750-1914), we'll look at the event and effects of the Atlantic Revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, and European Colonialism.

Our second Reading Analysis paper (due 6/28) will be based on primary documents relating to rights: "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" (1789) and "The Declaration of the Rights of Woman" (1791).

What questions are raised in your mind when you read these documents, and where will you look for the answers?

Great Posts! Quiz Tomorrow

There have been some really excellent posts in the student blogs this week. I really enjoy the diversity of interests you all show. Everything I read in your blogs shows me the material at an angle I hadn't anticipated.

Just a reminder that there will be another quiz tomorrow. This one will cover material from chapters 8-13 and will have the same format as the last one.

Hope you all had an excellent Father's Day weekend. (Here's a picture of the Columbus family having a rollicking good time).

Great Travelers

In the next section of the textbook (Part 3: An Age of Accelerating Connections 500-1500), we will see the world getting smaller as the interactions between regions, cultures, and peoples increase.

For our first Reading Analysis paper (due June 14), we will work with primary documents in translation, concerning the wonder-filled travels of two remarkable people of this period, Marco Polo and Ibn Batuta.

Have a look here at another example of one of the period's most notable adventurers, Xuanzang. His life reflects many of the themes covered in the textbook with regard to China's history (Confucianism, political disruption, the value of scholarship, and the import of Buddhism from India).